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Jury Selection

Alex (Qian) Wan
Product Designer,
Broadcom (VMware)

Alex (Qian) Wan is a product designer focused on B2B and generative AI. She enjoys giving back to the design community. She has been invited to be a design judge in 6 international competitions and national hackathons, where she advocates for aspiring designers. She has made a global impact by winning 20+ international awards and being featured in more than 30 national and international media outlets.

Most importantly, she is also a game nerd.

Alex's Picks

Digital tools

Figma
Figma is more than just a design tool; it’s an innovative platform that revolutionizes the way teams collaborate on design projects. Its features are thoughtfully designed to make design collaboration seamless and efficient. I’ve particularly enjoyed the ability to customize components easily and manage them effectively, enhancing my design workflow.

The Figma community is another highlight, offering a treasure trove of resources like templates, plugins, and events. It’s a vibrant space where creativity flourishes, allowing users to share and discover new ideas.

Notion
Notion is a powerful tool for individuals and teams seeking to organize their work and personal lives efficiently. From a UX perspective, one of the standout features of Notion is its highly intuitive and flexible interface. This flexibility allows users to customize their workspace in a way that best fits their needs, whether for project management, note-taking, database management, or scheduling.

Whiteboard (Miro, FigJam)
In today’s design world, you’ll often find yourself spending more time brainstorming with your team on a whiteboard than actually using design software. Luckily, we have some amazing virtual whiteboard tools like Miro and FigJam to help with that. What’s really cool about FigJam is how it works so smoothly with Figma, the design tool many of us use. This means you can easily switch between designing and brainstorming without losing track of your ideas, making teamwork a breeze. These tools are great because they let us work together just like we would in person, no matter where we are.

Games

Disco Elysium
It stands out as my game of the year—and indeed, a masterpiece—for numerous reasons. It eschews traditional role-playing game mechanics, instead offering a unique blend of top-notch writing and intricate character-building that sets it apart from its peers. Remarkably, the game features no combat in the traditional sense, yet it’s packed with content that demands energy and dedication to fully explore and appreciate. Players will find themselves deeply immersed in the rich, meticulously crafted world that the creators have built, making it a truly exceptional gaming experience that redefines what a role-playing game can be.

From a design perspective, the artistic choices, gameplay, and character development in Disco Elysium intertwine and enrich each other seamlessly. Each design decision is made with clear intent, contributing cohesively to the game’s final execution. All respect is due to the original creators of the game, whose visionary work has crafted an experience that stands as a beacon of creativity and innovation in the gaming industry.

Splatoon (1, 2, 3)
Splatoon stands out as an innovative third-person shooter game that captivates players with its exceptional gameplay design, stylish fashion, and catchy music. What sets Splatoon apart is how it utilizes the gyroscope with a combination of controllers, offering a gameplay experience that feels both intuitive and engaging. This seamless integration allows players to aim and navigate with remarkable precision, creating a shooting game experience that not only aligns perfectly with the player’s mental model but also sets a benchmark in game UX design.

Paper Please
“Papers, Please” is a captivating dystopian role-play simulation game developed by the indie studio Lucas Pope. In this game, you step into the shoes of an immigration inspector stationed at a border checkpoint of the fictional country Arstotzka. Your role is crucial: to review the documents of arrivals, deciding who gets to enter and who must be turned away based on the legitimacy of their paperwork. What sets “Papers, Please” apart is not just its unique gameplay but also its distinctive art style and the morally challenging decisions players must make. It offers a profound commentary on the nature of surveillance, freedom, and the human cost of maintaining borders. The game’s innovative moral choice system pushes you to weigh your decisions carefully, as they impact not only the lives of the would-be immigrants but also your own family’s survival.

Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey is a top-notch game, earning a flawless score of 10 out of 10. The Mario series has been around almost as long as video games themselves, always bringing something new to the table. In this adventure, you get to team up with Mario’s new friend, Cappy. By throwing Mario’s hat, Cappy, at other characters, you can take over their abilities. This cool feature makes the game really fun to explore, as you’re always excited to see what you can do next.

AI tools/integrations

Notion AI
Notion AI is designed to enhance the Notion experience, streamlining user interactions within the app. It offers quick, accurate answers to queries about internal resources, meetings, and projects, significantly lowering the cognitive load on users. This efficiency not only makes navigating Notion more intuitive but also boosts conversion rates by simplifying task management and information retrieval.

People + AI Research (PAIR)
If you are working on AI design or about to start, I highly recommend bookmarking this website for reference. As described on their site, they are a multidisciplinary team at Google, composed of researchers and artists, dedicated to exploring the “human side” of AI. Their focus is on creating AI that is not only powerful but also beneficial and inclusive for everyone. I particularly appreciate the tools, frameworks, and methodologies they provide, which guide you through the journey of designing for AI. These resources not only bring your project team together but also help you understand AI’s potential alongside its technical capabilities and limitations.

Microsoft – HAX toolkit
This free resource from Microsoft offers tools tailored for UX designers and researchers working with AI. I highly recommend the HAX Toolkit, which empowers us to design AI that’s user-friendly, trustworthy, and free of frustrating hiccups.

When you submit your work to the Davey Awards, it’s reviewed by creative professionals like Alex. The Final Entry Deadline is quickly approaching. Enter your projects before Friday, July 26th.

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